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Introducing Qigong Meditation into Residential Addiction Treatment: A Pilot Study Where Gender Makes a Difference. J Altern Complement Med. 2010 Jul 22. [Epub ahead of print] by Chen KW , Comerford A , Shinnick P , Ziedonis DM . Center for Integrative Medicine and Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
Abstract Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the feasibility and efficacy of adding integra-tive qigong meditation to residential treatment for substance abuse. Methods: Qigong meditation, which blends relaxa-tion, breathing, guided imagery, inward attention, and mindfulness to elicit a tranquil state, was introduced into a short-term residential treatment program. At first clients chose to participate in qigong meditation on a voluntary basis dur-ing their evening break. Later they chose to participate in either meditation or Stress Management and Relaxation Training (SMART) twice a day as part of the scheduled treatment. Weekly questionnaires were completed by 248 par-ticipants for up to 4 weeks to assess their changes in treatment outcomes. Participants in the meditation group were also assessed for quality of meditation to evaluate the association between quality and treatment outcome. Results: Most clients were amenable to meditation as part of the treatment program, and two thirds chose to participate in daily meditation. While both groups reported significant improvement in treatment outcomes, the meditation group reported a significantly higher treatment completion rate (92% versus 78%, p < 01) and more reduction in craving than did the SMART group. Participants whose meditation was of acceptable quality reported greater reductions in craving, anxiety, and withdrawal symptoms than did those whose meditation was of low quality. Female meditation participants re-ported significantly more reduction in anxiety and withdrawal symptoms than did any other group. Conclusions: Qigong meditation appears to contribute positively to addiction treatment outcomes, with results at least as good as those of an established stress management program. Results for those who meditate adequately are especially encour-aging. Meditative therapy may be more effective or acceptable for female drug abusers than for males. Further study is needed to assess ways to improve substance abusers' engagement and proficiency in meditation. A Comprehensive Review of Health Benefits of Qigong and Tai Chi.
Am J Health Promot. 2010 Jul-Aug; b24(6):e1-e25. by Jahnke R , Larkey L , Rogers C , Etnier J , Lin F . Arizona State University College of Nursing and Healthcare Innovation, 500 N 3rd Street, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA. Abstract Objective: Research examining psychological and physiological benefits of Qigong and Tai Chi is growing rapidly. The many practices described as Qigong or Tai Chi have similar theoretical roots, proposed mechanisms of action, and expected benefits. Research trials and reviews, however, treat them as separate targets of examination. This review examines the evidence for achieving outcomes from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of both. DATA SOURCES: The key words Tai Chi, Taiji, Tai Chi Chuan, and Qigong were entered into electronic search engines for the Cumulative Index for Allied Health and Nursing (CINAHL), psychological literature (PsycINFO), PubMed, Cochrane database, and Google Scholar. Study Inclusion Criteria: RCTs reporting on the results of Qigong or Tai Chi interventions and pub-lished in peer-reviewed journals from 1993 to 2007. DATA EXTRACTION: Country, type and duration of activity, number/type of subjects, control conditions, and reported outcomes were recorded for each study. SYNTHESIS: Out-comes related to Qigong and Tai Chi practice were identified and evaluated. RESULTS: Seventy-seven articles met the inclusion criteria. The nine outcome category groupings that emerged were bone density (n = 4), cardiopulmonary effects (n = 19), physical function (n = 16), falls and related risk factors (n = 23), quality of life (n = 17), self-efficacy (n = 8), patient-reported outcomes (n = 13), psychological symptoms (n = 27), and immune function (n = 6). CONCLUSIONS: Research has demonstrated consistent, significant results for a number of health benefits in RCTs, evidencing progress toward recognizing the similarity and equivalence of Qigong and Tai Chi. The Effects of Health Qigong Training of Elderly Single Women on Pain Consciousness and Depression.
Source: International Journal of Applied Sports Sciences . Dec2013, Vol. 25 Issue 2, p118-126. 9p. Author(s): Liang Dong; Jae-Bum Lee; Yong-Kuk Kim; Young-Sook Kim Abstract: The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of Qigong training of elderly single women on their pain consciousness and depression. To achieve the goal of this study, 102 female elder's were randomly placed into three groups of Health Qigong such as YiJinJing training group, LiuZiJue training group and control group with no training. They were trained for 12 weeks and the changes in their pain consciousness and depression were observed. After identifying the difference among three groups, the following conclusions were made. First, pain consciousness and depression were significantly improved in YiJinJing training group and LiuZiJue training group in pre and post assessments, while there was no difference in the control group. Second, in one-way ANOVA analysis of three groups on pain consciousness, there was significant difference between control group and YiJinJing training group, between control group and LiuZiJue training group, and between YiJinJing training group and LiuZiJue training group. Third, in ANOVA analysis of three groups on depression, there was significant difference between control group and YiJinJing training group, and between control group and LiuZiJue training group. The results show that YiJinJing training and LiuZiJue training of Health Qigong made effects on pain consciousness and depression of elderly single women, in particular YiJinJing training was more effective than LiuZiJue on pain consciousness. A randomized controlled trial of the effects of brief mindfulness meditation on anxiety symptoms and systolic blood pressure in Chinese nursing students.
Nurse Education Today. 2012 Dec 19. [Epub ahead of print] by Chen Y, et al. from School of Nursing, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China. Background: Previous studies suggested that mindfulness meditation effectively reduced stress-related anxiety and depression symptoms, but no research has evaluated the efficacy of mindfulness meditation in nurses and nursing students in China. This study tried to evaluate the effects of brief mindfulness meditation on the anxiety and depression symptoms and autonomic nervous system activity in Chinese nursing students. Methods: A randomized controlled trial was run in a medical university in Guangzhou, 105 nursing students were randomly approached by email and seventy-two responded. Sixty recruited students were randomized into meditation and control group (n=30 each) after screening and exclusion due to factors known to influence mood ratings and autonomic nervous system measures. The meditation group performed mindfulness meditation 30min daily for 7 consecutive days. The control group received no intervention except pre-post treatment measurements. The Self-Rating Anxiety Scale and Self-Rating Depression Scale were administered to participants, and heart rate and blood pressure were measured. Pre- and post-treatment data were analyzed using repeated-measures analysis of variance. Results:Differences between pre- and post-treatment Self-Rating Anxiety Scale scores were significantly larger in the meditation group than in the control group, but no similar effect was observed for Self-Rating Depression Scale scores. Systolic blood pressure was reduced more after the intervention in the meditation group than in the control group, with an average reduction of 2.2mmHg. A moderate level of anxiety was associated with the maximum meditation effect. Conclusions: Brief mindfulness meditation was beneficial for Chinese nursing students in reducing anxiety symptoms and lowering systolic blood pressure. Individuals with moderate anxiety are most likely to benefit from a short-term mindfulness meditation program. Effectiveness of yoga for menopausal symptoms: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Evidence Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine. 2012;2012:863905. Epub 2012 Nov 7. By Cramer H, et al. from Chair of Complementary and Integrative Medicine, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany. Objectives: To systematically review and meta-analyze the effectiveness of yoga for menopausal symptoms. Methods:Medline, Scopus, the Cochrane Library, and PsycINFO were screened through April 2012. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included if they assessed the effect ofyoga on major menopausal symptoms, namely, (1) psychological symptoms, (2) somatic symptoms, (3) vasomotor symptoms, and/or (4) urogenital symptoms. For each outcome, standardized mean differences (SMDs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Two authors independently assessed risk of bias using the risk of bias tool recommended by the Cochrane Back Review Group. Results: Five RCTs with 582 participants were included in the qualitative review, and 4 RCTs with 545 participants were included in the meta-analysis. There was moderate evidence for short-term effects on psychological symptoms (SMD = -0.37; 95% CI -0.67 to -0.07; P = 0.02). No evidence was found for total menopausal symptoms, somatic symptoms, vasomotor symptoms, or urogenital symptoms. Yoga was not associated with serious adverse events. Conclusion: This systematic review found moderate evidence for short-term effectiveness of yoga for psychological symptoms in menopausal women. While more rigorous research is needed to underpin these results, yoga can be preliminarily recommended as an additional intervention for women who suffer from psychological complaints associated with menopause. http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2012/863905 Yoga meditation practitioners exhibit greater gray matter volume and fewer reported cognitive failures: results of a preliminary voxel-based morphometric analysis.
Evidence Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine. 2012;2012:821307. By Froeliger B, et al. from Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27708, USA. Hatha yoga techniques, including physical postures (asanas), breathing exercises (pranayama), and meditation, involve the practice of mindfulness. In turn, yoga meditation practices may induce the state of mindfulness, which, when evoked recurrently through repeated practice, may accrue into trait or dispositional mindfulness. Putatively, these changes may be mediated by experience-dependent neuroplastic changes. Though prior studies have identified differences in gray matter volume (GMV) between long-term mindfulness practitioners and controls, no studies to date have reported on whether yoga meditation is associated with GMV differences. The present study investigated GMV differences between yoga meditation practitioners (YMP) and a matched control group (CG). The YMP group exhibited greater GM volume in frontal, limbic, temporal, occipital, and cerebellar regions; whereas the CG had no greater regional greater GMV. In addition, the YMP group reported significantly fewer cognitive failures on the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ), the magnitude of which was positively correlated with GMV in numerous regions identified in the primary analysis. Lastly, GMV was positively correlated with the duration of yoga practice. Results from this preliminary study suggest that hatha yoga practice may be associated with the promotion of neuroplastic changes in executive brain systems, which may confer therapeutic benefits that accrue with repeated practice. http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2012/821307 Effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction on sleep quality: Results of a randomized trial among Danish breast cancer patients.
Acta Oncol. 2013 Jan 3. [Epub ahead of print] By Andersen SR, et al. From Danish Cancer Society Research Center , Survivorship, Copenhagen , Denmark. The prevalence of sleep disturbance is high among cancer patients, and the sleep problems tend to last for years after the end of treatment. As part of a large RCT (MICA trial, NCT00990977) of the effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on psychological and somatic symptoms among breast cancer patients, the aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of MBSR on the secondary outcome, ‘sleep quality’. Material and methods. A total of 336 women operated on for breast cancer stage I-III 3-18 months previously were randomized to MBSR (n = 168) or treatment as usual (n = 168); both groups received standard clinical care. The intervention consisted of an eight-week MBSR program (psycho-education, meditation and gentle yoga). Sleep quality was assessed on the Medical Outcome Study sleep scale at baseline, after the intervention and at six- and 12-months’ follow-up. Results. The mean sleep problem scores were significantly lower in the MBSR group than in controls immediately after the intervention. Quantile regression analyses showed that the effect was statistically significant only for the participants represented by the lower percentile of change between baseline and post-intervention, i.e. those who had more sleep problems; the MBSR group had a significantly smaller increase in sleep problems than the control group. After the 12-month follow-up, there was no significant between-group effect of MBSR on sleep quality in intention-to-treat analyses. Conclusion. MBSR had a statistically significant effect on sleep quality just after the intervention but no long-term effect among breast cancer patients. Future trials in which participation is restricted to patients with significant sleep problems are recommended for evaluating the effect of MBSR on sleep quality. Immediate and long-term effects of meditation on acute stress reactivity, cognitive functions, and intelligence.
Alternative Therapies Health Medicine. 2012 Nov-Dec;18(6):46-53. By Singh Y, Sharma R, Talwar A. from Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. Context: With the current globalization of the world’s economy and demands for enhanced performance, stress is present universally. Life’s stressful events and daily stresses cause both deleterious and cumulative effects on the human body. The practice of meditation might offer a way to relieve that stress. The research team intended to study the effects of meditation on stress-induced changes in physiological parameters, cognitive functions, intelligence, and emotional quotients. Methods: The study was done in two phases, with a month between them. Each participant served as his own control. In phase 1, the researcher studied the effects of a stressor (10 minutes playing a computer game) on participants’ stress levels. In phase 2, the research team examined the effects of meditation on stress levels. The research was done in a lab setting at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The participants were 34 healthy male students. To study the effects of long-term meditation on stress levels, intelligence, emotional quotients, and cognitive functions participants meditated daily for 1 month, between phases 1 and 2. To study the immediate effects of meditation on stress levels, participants meditated for 15 minutes after playing a computer game to induce stress. The measures included galvanic skin response (GSR), heart rate (HR), and salivary cortisol and administered tests for the intelligence and emotional quotients (IQ and EQ), acute and perceived stress (AS and PS), and cognitive functions (ie, the Sternberg memory test [short-term memory] and the Stroop test [cognitive flexibility]). Using a pre-post study design, the team performed this testing (1) prior to the start of the study (baseline); (2) in phase 1, after induced stress; (3) in part 1 of phase 2, after 1 month of daily meditation, and (4) in part 2 of phase 2, after induced stress, both before and after 15 minutes of meditation. Results: Induced stress from the computer game resulted in a significant increase in physiological markers of stress such as GSR and HR. In the short term, meditation was associated with a physiological relaxation response (significant decrease in GSR) and an improvement in scores on the Stroop test of reaction times. In the long-term, meditation brought significant improvements in IQ and scores for cognitive functions, whereas participants’ stress levels (GSR and AS) decreased. EQ, salivary cortisol, and HR showed no significant changes. Conclusions: The practice of meditation reduced psychological stress responses and improved cognitive functions, and the effects were pronounced with practice of meditation for a longer duration (1 month). Role of Tai Chi in the treatment of rheumatologic diseases.
Current Rheumatology Reports. 2012 Dec;14(6):598-603. By Wang C. from Division of Rheumatology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston,MA, USA.[email protected] Rheumatologic diseases (e.g., fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis) consist of a complex interplay between biologic and psychological aspects, resulting in therapeutically challenging chronic conditions to control. Encouraging evidence suggests that Tai Chi, a multi-component Chinese mind-body exercise, has multiple benefits for patients with a variety of chronic disorders, particularly those with musculoskeletal conditions. Thus, Tai Chi may modulate complex factors and improve health outcomes in patients with chronic rheumatologic conditions. As a form of physical exercise, Tai Chi enhances cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength, balance, and physical function. It also appears to be associated with reduced stress, anxiety, and depression, as well as improved quality of life. Thus, Tai Chi can be safely recommended to patients with fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis as a complementary and alternative medical approach to improve patient well-being.This review highlights the current body of knowledge about the role of this ancient Chinese mind-body medicine as an effective treatment of rheumatologic diseases to better inform clinical decision-making for our patients. |
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